KRASNOYARSK, June 26. /TASS/. The Agency for Norilsk’s Development is an effective instrument to develop the city and to involve its residents in urban projects there, Nornickel’s Senior Vice President Larisa Zelkova said on Wednesday at presentation of the company’s report on sustainable development.
The Agency for Norilsk’s Development was established by the city administration, the Nornickel Company and the Vladimir Potanin Foundation in 2017 to implement social projects to improve the urban environment, to offer favorable conditions for sustainable social and economic development.
"Two years ago, jointly with Norilsk’s city administration, we organized a new instrument for collective development and partnership - the Agency for Norilsk’s Development. <…> In our opinion, when people not just decide who will invest, but when they participate [in projects’ implementation], means the effect would be different," she said. "We can see how the Agency is developing, we can see the interest to projects, and future is to promote approaches like this."
According to Deputy Director General of the Fund for Development of Mono-Industrial Cities Olga Makayeva, in cities like Norilsk, where the city-forming enterprise has high social responsibilities, the living conditions are higher than in other mono-industrial cities.
Norilsk is among the world’s five northernmost cities with the population of more than 100,000 (170,000 live in Norilsk). The other northernmost cities are Russia’s Murmansk, Norway’s Hammerfest, Anchorage in Alaska and the capital of Finland’s Lapand - Rovaniemi.